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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 69S 



dent of the senate, the rector of the University 

 of Rome, Professor Volterra, the mathema- 

 tician, and a numerous body of the members 

 of the congress from all parts of the world 

 were present at the ceremony. The mayor 

 welcomed the members in the name of the 

 city of Home, Signor Blasema in the name 

 of the academy and Signor Eava in the name 

 of the government. Professor Volterra made 

 the opening speech. 



The proposal for the establishment of an 

 International Sickness Bureau having fallen 

 through, at any rate for the time being, the 

 British government has decided to take inde- 

 pendent action, and it has been determined to 

 establish a British national bureau in London, 

 to be maintained by annual grants made from 

 the imperial and Soudanese governments. 



The International Peace Bureau, Berne, 

 Switzerland, has issued a circular letter em- 

 bodying the resolutions adopted by the six- 

 teenth Universal Peace Congress, which met 

 at Munich in September, 1907. The sub- 

 stance of the resolutions is as follows : 



(1) That Esperanto be taught as an inter- 

 national auxiliary language in the schools; 



(2) that, inasmuch as the French minister of 

 public instruction is disposed to initiate an 

 intergovernmental conference to consider the 

 best means of organizing an international 

 system of education, and since the adoption of 

 this system would entail the elaboration of 

 programs which would enable students to pass 

 from the institutions of one country to those 

 of another with suitable diplomas, the con- 

 gress expresses the hope that the different 

 governments will speedily indicate their 

 willingness to participate in this conference, 

 and invites the " pacifistes " (or promoters of 

 peace everywhere) to take the necessary steps 

 to bring this about. (3) The congress, con- 

 sidering the importance of the measures taken, 

 two years since, by the Italian minister of 

 public instruction, which were also adopted by 

 the Hungarian minister, to have all the pupils 

 of the state schools participate in a peace 

 festival on February 22, with a view to in- 

 spiring them with sentiments of peace and 

 humanity, extends its felicitations to the gov- 



ernments of Italy and Hxmgary, and wishes to 

 bring their beneficent example to the attention 

 of all peace societies in order that through 

 their instrumentality their own governments 

 may adopt similar measures. 



The public lectures of the University of 

 Cincinnati ended March 26, the last being 

 " Civic Opportunities for Educated Women," 

 by Miss Sophonisba Breckenridge, instructor 

 in household administration and assistant dean 

 of women in the University of Chicago. The 

 preceding titles and lectures were as follows: 

 " The Hygiene of Woman's Employment," 

 Professor C. A. L. Eeed ; " Local Self-govern- 

 ment in Cities," Dean William P. Bogers; 

 " The Hole of School and Workshop in the 

 Production of Deformities," Professor A. H. 

 Freiberg ; " The Force of Ideas," Professor B. 

 B. Breese ; " Modern Hospitals," Professor C. 

 R. Holmes; "Pragmatism," Professor H. H. 

 Bawden ; " Expert Testimony," Professor 

 Joseph Ransohoff ; " Fair Play for People and 

 Corporations," Milo E. Maltbie, of the Public 

 Service Commission of New York ; " The Na- 

 ture of Political Corruption," Professor 

 Robert C. Brooks, of Swarthmore OoUege; 

 " Bacteria and Disease," Professor John E. 

 Greiwe; "Petra, and the New Way Thither," 

 Professor P. V. N. Myers, late of the Uni- 

 versity faculty. 



A PRESS bulletin of the Forest Service calls 

 attention to the fact that on the Pacific coast, 

 especially in Oregon and California, there is 

 an immense amount of white fir (Ahies con- 

 color) timber now going to waste for lack of 

 some commercially profitable means of dis- 

 posing of it. At present it is very little used 

 for lumber, and since it is not cut to any 

 extent its proportion in the forest tends to 

 increase at the expense of other and mora 

 valuable trees. Experiments conducted at the 

 Forest Service laboratory at Washington show 

 that this wood is admirably adapted for the 

 production of paper pulp by the sulphite proc- 

 ess. The wood is found to yield very readily 

 to the action of the sulphite liquors used, 

 which is of the usual commercial strength, 

 viz., about 4 per cent, total sulphur dioxide, 

 1 per cent, combined and 3 per cent, available. 



